Helping small business owners in the all-important social media world

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How-To

This is the first in a series of How-To articles that I’ll be working on over the next several weeks. I’m targeting Small Business Owners and Solopreneurs that are getting starting with their social media and, like me when I first started learning about this (seems so long ago now 😉 ), got overwhelmed with all I *should* be doing to have a cohesive marketing strategy and be socially active online. Please remember that the most important part of all this…have fun, it shows!

So today I’m going to show you how to set up your Business Page on Facebook…let’s get started:

As you can see, there are six different page options. Each page option has its own fields to better classify your selection…check it out:

Facebook Create A Page Options

Select the option that best fits your business (Local Business, Company, etc.); I chose ‘Company, Organization or Institution’. Whatever your choice, you’ll need to fill in the appropriate information. For example, since I work from home and there wasn’t a ‘Marketing’ option that best described my type of business, I selected ‘Small Business’ and entered my company name, ‘Dragonfly Social Marketing’. Once you’ve made your selection, click ‘Get Started’.

Facebook Create A Page – Get Started

Now you’ll be taken through 4 steps to complete your basic information. First up, your ‘About’ section. Use two or three savvy sentences to describe who you are/what your business is. Keep it short, sweet and succinct.

By selecting News Feed, it will show up on the left side of your personal home page for easy access:

Facebook Business Page Set Up – Favorites

Now on to the last step in the walk-through to complete your basic information, Preferred Page Audience. Here you’ll be able to select multiple categories that are relevant to your type of business. Here is what I selected:

Facebook Business Page Set Up – Preferred Page Audience

Click ‘Save’ and your basic business page is now LIVE! Next, Facebook is going to ask you to ‘Like’ your page…don’t do that yet. Why? Because you need to add more details and populate with content…you don’t want to let the world see a naked page, do you?

Ok, so now you need to add your cover photo. The recommended size is 851 x 315 pixels. I’ve created a handy PowerPoint template that you can use to create your very own, unique cover photo…how cool am I?! Get it here

Alright! You’re ready to get into the meat of your page. Click ‘About’ and you’ll be taken to the place where you can add/modify information about your business. Add as much as you can so that the next time someone is looking for your type of business you show in the results.

Facebook Business Page Set Up – About My Business

Next click on ‘Settings’ on the top/right of the page (just under the blue bar). This is where you’ll be taken:

Facebook Business Page Set Up – Settings

You *should* take the time to click through each option so that you can familiarize yourself with everything your Facebook page has to offer. And, thankfully, everything is explained pretty well by Facebook. Just click on each ‘Edit’ and it will tell you what you need to know so that you can make an informed decision.

Now for the FUN! You need to start populating your page with content…if you’ve already written some articles or blog posts, post links to them on your page. Find or create a couple of cool infographics that are about your business and post those. Google some funny jokes/memes about what you do that you can add to your page. Make sure and include snippets (with pictures/graphics if at all possible) about you, your employees (if applicable), what’s happening RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT and what’s coming soon. There are all kinds of options when it comes to content…it just takes time to do it and do it WELL 😉

Once you’ve got some posts up, you’re ready to tell the world! Now is the time to ‘Like’ your page and post about it on your personal Facebook page. Ask everyone you know to share your page. Also, do some searching in Facebook (using Facebook as your business page) to find other company pages that are symbiotic with yours that you can like and share information with…start networking – socially!